The difference between wisdom and folly is like that between light and darkness. Wisdom and folly are absolutely different. The comparison also means that wisdom is the superior or positive value, and folly all negative. The verb saw can be rendered as “realized” or “discovered.”
Wisdom excels folly is a comparative expression that places wisdom above folly. The phrase is literally “there is a lasting benefit [yithron] to wisdom more than to folly.” The nature of the Hebrew comparative form makes it clear that only wisdom has this benefit; folly is of no value at all. Some languages will find it more natural to say that “wisdom is good and folly is not” or some similar contrasting expression. As yithron is a keyword in this book, it will be well to make this idea clear in the translation. The use of abstract nouns wisdom and folly may be unnatural in some languages, in which case verbal expressions could be used: “Being wise has lasting benefit; being foolish has none.”
As light excels darkness draws on the metaphor of light and dark, which frequently appears in the Scriptures and marks an absolute contrast. Like the opening phrase, this one also is literally “as the lasting benefit of light over darkness.” This then becomes a powerful statement to the effect that only wisdom can produce any lasting benefit. This concept may be difficult to render in several languages where the terms of comparison are different. We may be able to speak of the “lasting benefit” of wisdom over folly, but not of the “lasting benefit” of light over dark. Our translation can make the point easily with a phrase like “Then I realized that lasting benefit comes only through being wise, never through folly. That is because wisdom and folly are as different as day and night” or “Then I knew that wisdom could bring lasting benefit; folly never will. Wisdom and folly are as different as light is to darkness.”
In some languages it may be more effective for the comparison to come before the statement: “As light excels darkness, so wisdom excels folly” or “As light is opposite to darkness, so wisdom [or, being wise] is opposite to folly [or, being foolish].”
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Ecclesiates. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .